LAHORE: In a major step towards reforms, the Punjab police on Tuesday launched two innovative services titled “Punjab Police WhatsApp Services and Online Complaint Management System” which are aimed at providing police services at the doorsteps of citizens.
While highlighting silent features of the initiatives at the launching ceremony held at the Central Police Office (CPO) here, Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Faisal Shahkar said the future of police service is linked with IT-based policing, which is why they were expanding the scope of IT-related initiatives so that the citizens can benefit from police services at their doorstep.
He said the Punjab police have launched these services to take out police services from police stations and offices and deliver them at the doorsteps of citizens so that they may not only register their complaints easily but also get other information, including obtaining driving license, registration of FIR, on just one click.
He said the WhatsApp number of Punjab police is 0331-7871787 through from which any citizen, especially overseas Pakistanis, can lodge their complaints directly without visiting any police office.
“Under these modern services, the overseas Pakistanis will be able to get information and services from anywhere and in the light of citizens’ feedback; more features will be added to both the software in future”, he added.
According to Faisal, the Police department is consolidating all its IT-related projects into one modern app on the lines of multinational companies so that citizens can have access to all policing-related facilities in a single app. He said that for the convenience of the people, the complaint management system has also been made online through which citizens could not only register their complaints online but also can get E-tag number.
“The complaints received by the citizens will be monitored at the CPO as well as at the district level and actions will also be taken against those officials who deliberately delayed required actions,” he warned.
Punjab Deputy Inspector General for Information and Technology Ahsan Younis while said the Punjab police were making its IT projects more convenient for the citizens and the WhatsApp service and online complaints management systems are a link to this chain.
“Nowadays, every citizen is using WhatsApp and if he/she has any work related to the police, he/she should send a message by simply writing Hello, Salam or 1 to (0331-7871787) and 15 services will be displayed,” he said, demonstrating the service.
He said that these services include Crime Report, IG Punjab Complaint Cell, Police Service Center Facilities, Helpline Numbers, Gender Harassment Report, Police Offices, Facilities for Overseas Pakistanis, Social Media, Punjab Police Website, Zainab Alert, Most Wanted Criminals, Citizen portal, details of domestic workers criminal record verification, feedback and suggestions etc.
Punjab DIG Operations Waqas Nazir hoped that these two modern services will also prove to be an important milestone in the provision of services by Punjab police after the police facilitation centres.
Responding to a query, Punjab IGP Faisal Shahkar said that police teams will go to schools and give awareness lectures to children regarding the use of these two services so that the students could inform their parents.
Answering a question asked by a journalist about the actions regarding May 25 incidents, the IG police said there is public pressure on police, but they were used to it.
“All police officers are experienced and they are bound to work under pressure. Whatever happens will be according to the law”, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022